That’s a huge b—-, black hole! The studies of the skies and the depths of outer space continue, with new and intriguing discoveries being made all of the time! One of the latest finds is a black hole that is truly monstrous!

Studies of this far away galaxy have been focusing on it’s core black hole. Supermassive black holes exist at the centers of galaxies, and the one found at the heart of NGC 1277 has captured much attention because of it’s size. This particular galaxy is merely one tenth the size of our home galaxy, The Milky Way. Yet, it’s central black hole is seventeen billion times as massive as The Sun, while expanding to a distance that is greater than the orbit of Neptune around our star. This black hole just might be the largest black hole within the known universe!

The Hobby-Eberly Telescope at McDonald Observatory is where NGC 1277 first was viewed. Astronomers at UT-Austin have said that studies of this galaxy show that it is comprised mainly of it’s central black hole. They may designate it as the first known galaxy of it’s kind, being mostly black hole, with comparably lesser amounts of star systems encircling the center. WOW!!!